Relics
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: Relics. Alien relics. Relics that Mengsk seemed particuarly intent on collecting for some reason. And for that matter, Jake felt like a relic as well, even working for Valerian. Why dig up the history of the past if people were only interested in the present?


**Relics**

"And in other news today, retrieval work continues in the Sigma Quadrant. Dominion Fleet forces have-…"

"Shut up Rosemary."

Jake knew he'd touched a nerve. Not that he'd told Dahl to shut up, but that he'd used the term "Rosemary." Sure enough, looking up from his dig, he saw her fingering her slugthrower.

_Figures, _Jake thought to himself, returning his gaze to the tablet in the sandy ground below him. _What else did you expect?_

"You alright Jake?"

Jake looked up again, Jake saw Dahl walking over, her hands free of both pistol and fone, from which she'd been reading the latest UNN newsfeed. She stopped walking, but only to sit down beside the archaeologist.

"I'm fine," Jake murmured, turning his eyes again to the tablet. "Just fine."

He wasn't, and he knew he wasn't fooling anyone. But right now, he didn't particularly care either.

Nothing was alright now, Jake reflected. True, it could have been worse – _Alien Enigmas _was a bestseller, and unlike many other archaeologists in the Koprulu sector, he was still fortunate enough to work on a dig, this time on Helios. And yet, everything felt wrong as well. It felt wrong not having his old team. It felt wrong to be surrounded by mercenaries and marines, guns at the ready in case the KLF showed up. It felt wrong working for the Dominion. True, Valerian had genuine interest in archaeology, but Jake could tell that his interest wasn't that different from his father's. Mengsk Senior had begun organized digs for these alien relics for reasons Jake could summarize related to his desire to hang onto power. Valerian wanted them for power as a means rather than an end, but power nonetheless. An end that seemed to involve the Moebius Foundation for instance. Either way, Jake knew he was effectively trapped. Anything he dug up would either be catalogued on some forgotten starship or sent to Valerian's associates to further whatever stunt he was pulling.

"You know, sometimes I don't know how you can do this," Dahl said eventually, still sitting down beside her friend.

Jake grunted.

"I mean, what, there's at least three other alien species out there?" Dahl asked. "And, what, you're interested in dead ones."

"I was an archaeologist before Chau Sara," Jake murmured.

"Yeah, but that was five years ago. And hey, we had fun with living aliens didn't we?" She gave him a playful nudge. "Zerg, protoss…course one species is always going to try to kill you and the other still freaks me out, but-…"

"Are you done?" Jake snapped.

Dahl shut up. She said nothing. If her face was doing the talking, Jake didn't see. He was too busy getting the tablet out of the ground.

_Got it._

'Getting it.' He felt like he was the only one who did. Whatever 'it' was. True, whatever species on Helios had never got past a bronze age level of development and true, the only reason Valerian was funding a dig was because that race had had contact with the xel'naga. Same reason why the Moebius Foundation was examining ruins on Xil. And yet, Jake was more interested in a dead species than two living ones or one that might or might not be dead based on what his intuition was telling him. He stared at the tablet, its inscriptions running in diagonal lines.

"Beautiful," he murmured.

"Looks like rock to me."

Jake sighed. "Are you still here?"

Dahl tapped her slugthrower. "It's my job Jake."

"Yeah, whatever. Least I actually _work _for a living."

Valerian had a sense of humour. A weird, twisted one. One that involved putting Rosemary on the same bloody dig as his prized archaeologist. At first, Jake had welcomed it, for reasons that didn't stem entirely from his brain. But now…now…he didn't know. Half of him was hoping Dahl would go off to bother someone else. The other half was hoping that she'd stay, so that he wouldn't be left with a piece of rock that no-one besides himself would care about.

Whichever half was in the right, Jake didn't know. Because as Dahl rested a hand on his shoulder, that other part of his body started thing for him.

"You know…for what it's worth…I do sympathize with you."

"Great."

Jake's brain was back in control. And it was kicking his tongue for speaking out of turn.

"Yeah…" the mercenary continued. "I know how much this means to you. How much it pains you having to do this dirty work…no pun intended."

"I'm touched."

Dahl sighed and got to her feet. If Jake's brain was kicking his tongue before, now it was strangling it. But despite that, he managed to get some words out.

"Rose…Dahl…"

"Go on. Say it."

"Rosemary," Jake said. "And I'm sorry too. Really. It's just…just…" He tossed the tablet back in the sand. "Bloody hell, I can't even get the words out."

"Could write another book."

Jake got to his feet as well. Crouching in the sand was all well and good, but it did a number on one's back. And standing up in Dahl's presence had another advantage given the height difference.

It also made kissing her easier.

Dahl blushed and looked around. Jake didn't care. Didn't care what anyone thought. Maybe that was why he liked working with stone and dead aliens. They didn't judge him.

And thankfully, neither did the merc before him.


End file.
